Up until very recently, the only two Pokémon games that I’d played were the original Red and Yellow for the Game Boy. I remember enjoying the former a great deal, getting just about everything you could possibly obtain without having a friend with Blue to trade with. The latter I only played briefly, but thought was pretty cool because it had colours and a free Pikachu. Eventually, I grew out of watching the cartoon and stopped collecting the trading cards. I moved onto the next kid craze of the time, which was probably yo-yos, finger-skateboards or something equally silly. I managed to avoid playing anything else Pokémon-related for many years, until nobody stopped me from buying Pokémon X.

I’m going to assume for the purposes of this article that you all know what Pokémon are. If not, I encourage you to leave your isolation chamber, because sunlight is an essential source of Vitamin D. Pokémon X is one of two new Pokémon games released for the Nintendo 3DS, the other being its not-quite-identical twin, Pokémon Y. Such is the pattern of Pokémon game releases that Nintendo always launch two at the same time, each with slightly differing content (e.g. some Pokémon can only be caught in one game, some only in the other). They represent the introduction of the sixth “generation” (colloquially Gen 6 or Gen VI) of Pokémon. Back in my day, they only had 151 you know. Now there are hundreds of the buggers.

Before I delve into the meat of this review, I feel it’s important to point out a couple of things. First of all, I’m not what you’d call a Pokémon fan in the traditional sense. While I enjoyed my time with the Game Boy titles, nothing had particularly attracted me to any other Pokémon game until X. As such, this review is very much from the perspective of someone who has had zero experience of Pokémon since that time and may annoy proper fans. With those factoids in mind, let us proceed.

The first welcome surprise from Pokémon X came in the form of character creation. Whereas before I was limited to choosing my name and the name of my rival, I could now create my own avatar. Granted, there are scant customisation options to begin with (just a few presets to choose from), but the game compensates for this by offering clothing shops and barbers as you progress through the brand new Kalos region. Everything from your hair colour to your shoes can be changed for the right price, which helps to make the journey a more personal experience.

After making my character, I was delighted to discover a welcome familiarity with the opening stages of the game. The developers have stayed true to the tested formula of having random kids from tiny villages set off on an adventure to fill up their Pokédex. In the same vein, I was pleased to discover analogue and digital controls working in harmony. Using the + Control Pad allows precision manoeuvres via grid-based movement, while the Circle Pad provides freedom from said grid and more natural controls. Setting off with my friends to the next town over, I was finally offered my choice of one of three Pokémon. Since I owned bones with Blastoise in my Game Boy days, I settled on the water-based Froakie for my first companion.

Eventually, I was allowed to go out and start wallowing around in tall grass starting fights with anything I stepped on. It was obvious from the outset that battles have received very little alteration since their inception: you and your opponent sit diagonally opposite each other on the main screen, with the touchscreen devoted to menu selections. Pokémon have a total of four moves that can be learned at any time and take it in turns to flail in one another’s general direction. While the combat animations and camera angles have come a long way since the Game Boy’s static sprites and shaking side-to-side, it’s a tad disappointing not to see battles being a little more fluid after so much time.

While it may not be new to X, certainly new to me was the concept of double battles: sending two Pokémon out into the field at the same time to combat an opposing pair. While this offered a welcome break from the norm, it wasn’t sufficiently different enough to be truly refreshing. Even encountering a horde of Psyducks – a 1 vs. 5 situation – was still very similar to a standard battle. Regardless of its somewhat stale demeanour, the battle system retains its tried and true nature. It remains the main focus of the game and has lost none of its original draw: if you were happy spending hours fighting and catching Pokémon in previous titles, you’ll be just as happy in X.

Thankfully, however, you no longer have to spend so much time grinding levels. A handy item called the “Exp. Share” is available very early in the game. Once activated, it allows all six of your carried Pokémon to earn experience points from battle, regardless of whether or not they were taken out. Unfortunately, this is something of a double-edged sword; with careful selection of learned moves, you may find yourself rarely needing to change Pokémon. There’s simply no incentive to take another one out unless it’s another bloody grass type and your Froakie still hasn’t learned anything decent that isn’t water-related.

This situation quickly lead to me becoming horribly over-levelled. Battles are now a simple matter of choosing one move or another to immediately one-shot the Pokémon opposite me. The only challenge remaining was when I wanted to capture said Pokémon – I needed it to be alive, but only just. But before long, even this was taken away from me with the move “False Swipe”, which is guaranteed to leave an opponent with exactly 1HP. I don’t feel like I can ever lose a battle in Pokémon X, which isn’t a good thing. There’s very little difficulty, even when venturing into caves supposedly infested with Zubat. The delicate balance between tedium and challenge is decidedly off; I don’t know how many Pokéballs I wasted trying to catch that Snorlax.

But while the story and gameplay could be considered stagnant, the graphics and sound have made great progress. This is one of the few games that don’t use 3D to excess and I want to praise it endlessly for that alone. I can keep the 3D slider on maximum and it will only kick in when it’s beneficial to the experience, such as during battles. While moving around town or navigating menus, there’s nothing jumping out at you and draining your battery needlessly. I still tend to keep 3D off despite this selective implementation, however, since it tends to cause some pretty drastic frame rate drops in battles. Certain camera angles can make your Pokémon look like a badly-looped GIF unless you switch that slider right down to the OFF position.

Aside from the clash between hardware limitations and features, the game is bright and detailed, with plenty of pretty graphics being cranked out of the 3DS. The music is once again stellar, with some remixed tunes from the original games making me smile every time I hear them. Another nice touch is the decision to keep the low-fidelity signature cries of Gen I Pokémon; hearing a Caterpie for the first time in over a decade helped to bridge the gap between the old and the new.

Other new features (again, new to me) include the ability to breed and trade Pokémon. While I can’t say I’ve tinkered around with breeding all that much yet, I’ve put the “Wonder Trade” to excellent use. I simply catch a second Pokémon of the same species, send it packing and voilà: I get a new Pokémon, usually one I’ve not yet seen. A handy way to boost your Pokédex entries, but it runs the risk of you getting a Pokémon that’s been given a nickname by somebody else. For some indeterminable reason, you cannot change a nickname of a traded Pokémon, meaning your brand new Pikachu is going to be called “Swagbro” or “仲間を盗品” forever. You can also use the “Player Search System” to do other sociable things, like battle or converse with your fellow players. During the course of the game, you can even make little 10-second movie clips of your character and Pokémon to show off to other people.

Aside from the social and cosmetic aspects, there is a definite focus on the idea of “mega-evolution” in this game. While the term alone would probably make Darwin spin in his grave, this idea centres around the use of certain special stones to make your fully-evolved Pokémon turn into new “mega” versions of themselves. Again, you can have different mega-evolutions depending on which version of the game you’re playing, but you can think of it as just another stage of development. Mega-evolution is done in-battle and is temporary, with your Pokémon reverting to their normally-evolved forms afterwards.

You can also now become closer friends with each of your Pokémon pals through a series of virtual pet mini-games. Feed your Pokémon little cakes, use your stylus to pet it, speak its name, smile or make a face to the 3DS’ front camera… a whole host of Tamagotchi-esque events await the eager. While this section is entirely optional, affection offers some real benefits in battle, causing high-affection Pokémon to score more critical hits, dodge more often, gain boosted experience and even sometimes endure damage that would have otherwise killed them. Another, separate set of mini-games allows you to custom-train your Pokémon in different attributes (such as HP or Defense). In this manner, you can accentuate your team’s strengths or eliminate their weaknesses via some relatively simple “launch the ball at the target” sideshow-style games.

When it comes down to it, Pokémon X isn’t too far removed from the original Game Boy titles in terms of how it plays. There are a few extra features, but by and large, I’m playing the same game with prettier graphics and better sound. This is probably perfect for Pokémon fans who want more of the same and I certainly can’t fault them for choosing this path. For all its minor faults and lack of forward movement, Pokémon X is a lot of fun to play. Everything I enjoyed about Pokémon Red and Yellow, I enjoy in X. The core gameplay may not have changed, but it’s been refined and polished to a point where that doesn’t really matter. The old adage of not fixing what isn’t broken applies here in spades, with the majority of new content coming from the new region, new Pokémon (including an entirely new “Fairy” type) and new badges.

Coming back to Pokémon after all these years, I feel like my purchase was worthwhile. I can easily see me spending a couple of hours every day or so, battling and capturing Pokémon in an effort to once again catch ‘em all. The new features provide enough icing on the cake to keep you from noticing that it might be a little stale, with only minor annoyances to occasionally detract from your overall enjoyment. If you ever liked the Pokémon games you played way back when, you’re probably going to love what Pokémon X (or indeed Y) has to offer.

© 2013 – 2014, zero1gaming.com. All rights reserved. On republishing this article your must provide a link to this original post